Latham losing his sway amid the deafening silence

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The disarray pervading Labor is of its leader's own making, writes
Mark Metherell.

Having failed to respond to the human impact of the tsunami,
Mark Latham now finds himself in political deep water with few of
his colleagues prepared to throw him a lifejacket.

None of the dozen MPs who have spoken privately to the
Herald about Latham's plight have expressed doubt that
Latham has been painfully, if not seriously, ill.

But few of them would doubt that Latham has made a series of
misjudgements that raise questions about his leadership.

These begin with the initial secrecy over his illness. To start
with his absence from the public stage at a time of a humanitarian
crisis in which Australia was so tragically involved had been
excused with the explanation that he was on leave and that the
matter was being actively dealt with by the then acting Labor
leader, Jenny Macklin, and foreign spokesman, Kevin Rudd.

Intrigue over his silence deepened with the belated announcement
of his illness, about 10 days after he became sick. The disclosure
that his agonising pancreatitis had returned was only made after
the questions mounted as to why he had remained silent in the face
of the horrifying scale of the tsunami tragedy.

Some MPs believe it was reasonable of Latham not to have made a
statement if he was under doctor's orders. This was strongly put by
Kevin Rudd: "If you are crook you are crook, you take the advice of
your doctors."

He was speaking after the Herald revealed yesterday that
about the time it was announced last week that he was ill, Latham
was at a resort in Terrigal with his family.

But as another senior MP put it yesterday: "That has not been
helpful because people would be wondering."

The phones ran hot as Labor MPs called each other about the
latest reports of their leader's activities and swapping
speculation about a potential change.

Then came the statement by the acting Labor leader, Senator
Chris Evans, revealing that Latham would make a statement about his
health by Friday after discussing his latest medical results with
his family.

Several MPs, already agitated about the resort report, saw this
as Latham preparing the way for his own departure.

Frontbencher and Latham supporter, Joel Fitzgibbon, one of the
few to have spoken to Latham in recent days, last night publicly
disputed such an interpretation.

But the disarray now pervading Labor is of its leader's own
making. Many Labor MPs, including his supporters, believe if he was
well enough to mind his children as they played in a pool at
Terrigal, he was well enough to sign a declaration of sympathy for
the tsunami victims.